


Dog Days

by dedkake



Category: X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Established Relationship, Jealous Erik, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Puppies, Sexting, Skype
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-09
Updated: 2013-04-09
Packaged: 2017-12-08 00:30:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/754864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dedkake/pseuds/dedkake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erik doesn’t realize that the puppy he gets Charles for their one year anniversary will grow up to be a bear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dog Days

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [this prompt](http://xmen-firstkink.livejournal.com/8700.html?thread=21124604) from the kink meme (which is based on [this puppy](http://i.imgur.com/BRbqtet.jpg) and [this dog](http://i.imgur.com/JR4bRL7.jpg)).

“I can’t believe you’re going to be gone for _four months_ ,” Charles complains, wrapping himself more tightly around Erik on their bed.

Erik hums and sends out a burst of energy to twist the wedding band on Charles’ finger. “We lasted all six months when you accepted that fellowship at Oxford,” he says into Charles’ hair. It had been a very difficult half year, especially since Erik hadn’t been able to take any time off work to visit.

Charles groans and rolls, pushing Erik down into the mattress and leaning over him. “Don’t remind me. That was the longest six months of my life.”

“This time you have an entire week to visit me for our anniversary, though,” Erik says, running his hands down Charles’ sides to rest on his hips. He’s never been happier that Charles invited Logan and Ororo to live with them at the mansion than when Charles explained that with more teachers around, he would have more free time.

“And now we have Skype with working webcams,” Charles murmurs, pushing a wet kiss into Erik’s neck. Erik shivers at the memory of their last Skype date—an ill-advised call in the middle of the day that had left them both scrambling for excuses for their tardiness.

Pulling at Charles’ hair so he can get a better angle for a real kiss, Erik says, “And we’re married this time.”

Charles stills above him, resting his forehead against Erik’s. A thick, heavy sadness creeps across Erik’s senses, tingeing the world grey around the edges as Charles opens his mind to Erik. _That just means I’ll miss you more._

-

Two days before his flight, Erik finds himself staring down at an overly fluffy puppy at the local Humane Society. In all the scenarios that Erik has ever even considered buying a dog, it’s always purebred, but getting a dog for Charles from a breeder rather than a shelter seems inappropriate. Erik does not like dogs, not even puppies—they are loud and needy and they smell—but the ball of fluff on the floor at his feet isn’t so bad.

The puppy slobbers all over Erik’s designer shoe, turning its big, brown eyes up at Erik guiltily when Erik snaps at it to stop. Yes, Charles will love this puppy, because Charles loves everything small and needy and cute.

When they were younger, Charles had frequently talked about getting a dog and raising puppies alongside their children. Erik had always brushed it off, and he’d been happy when Charles had abandoned that dream after receiving his third doctorate. The conversion of their home to a school and the addition of ten young mutants to their family were somewhat distressing developments, but children, Erik has decided, are better than puppies.

But Erik feels the need to give _something_ to Charles by way of apology for his business trip, especially since it happens to overlap with their first year anniversary. And since Charles thinks cats are evil and Erik is fairly certain finding another child mutant is ethically ambiguous, Erik hands over his credit card and signs the papers for the dog.

-

Erik regrets bringing the puppy home immediately, when he walks into their bedroom to find Charles naked and waiting for him on their bed. But there’s no question that Charles loves the dog. It takes Charles less than a minute to thank Erik with a brief, but wet kiss, find his pajama pants, and tackle the puppy on the floor.

“David?” Erik asks from his seat by the fire a half hour later. Charles has been rolling around with the puppy, debating names aloud with himself and, unsurprisingly, the puppy.

Charles gives Erik an upside down grin. “It’s a good name,” he says, rather than asks, and Erik doesn’t know whether he should be relieved or offended that his opinion isn’t really going to be taken into consideration.

Reaching down to grudgingly scratch at the puppy’s ear, Erik says, “I thought you wanted to name our son David, if we ever had a son.” They’d talked about having kids, a long time ago, but they’d never really settled on anything. And now Charles runs a school full of children, who are, while not officially, something like a family to them.

“Well, now we have a dog,” Charles says, grabbing Erik’s hand and kissing his palm lightly. “And his name is David.”

-

The kids love David, too.

-

When Erik asks Charles to send him pictures during the day to distract him from the monotony of work, he does not expect to be bombarded by pictures of the puppy. He’s not sure why he doesn’t expect it, because Charles already sends him pictures of the kids all the time, and sometimes even of his favorite potted plant. It doesn’t take Erik long to settle into the routine of opening up a new email every few hours with a picture of David—alone, with Charles, with the children, chewing on Erik’s favorite slippers—and eventually, Erik even finds himself enjoying the minor updates.

So when Erik receives the third email of the day with the subject of “;)”, he doesn’t pause before tapping it open on his iPad on the conference table in front of him as he continues to watch the presenter at the head of the table. There’s a gasp beside him, though, that draws Erik’s attention back to his iPad, where the picture is not of David, but Charles, fully naked in his desk chair, winking up at the camera he’s holding above his head.

Erik turns his iPad off as quickly as he can, flipping it over on the table and glaring at the man seated next to him. “Don’t say anything,” he growls, annoyed enough that someone else has seen a picture of Charles naked.

The man looks like he’s having a hard time containing his laughter, and Erik sends him one last glare before pulling his phone out of his pocket.

Starting a new email to Charles, Erik types out, _Warn me next time!_

Charles’ reply comes a moment later. _Did the whole office see me naked? ;)_

Erik glares down at his phone, completely abandoning any attempt to pay attention to the presentation. _You’re lucky they didn’t._

_What would you do if I showed up naked in your office? I’ve seen the glass walls in your building. Anyone could see._

Glancing around at the rest of his co-workers, Erik finds that no one has even noticed he’s on his phone, no one besides the man next to him, who gives him a wink. Erik glares at him again and turns back to his phone.

_I’d just have to show you how naughty you’d been._

-

“Have you gotten off yet today?” Charles asks, his tone light, but his voice grainy over their Skype connection. Erik shudders at the words anyway and shakes his head. “Good. I want to see you get off to just my voice.”

Erik glares down at the screen, trying to ignore the way his stomach flutters at the suggestion. “I’ve waited all day to see you naked, too,” he hisses, crossing his arms over his already naked chest.

Charles smiles back at him, but there’s a hard edge to it that sets Erik’s heart racing. “Well, you’ll just have to hurry up then, because I’m not taking anything off until you’ve come.”

As much as he wants to see Charles live up to his promises, Erik doesn’t really see the point in denying Charles anything at this point, especially when Charles is offering something like this. Erik licks his lips, pleased to see that Charles mirrors the action a second later. “What do you want me to do?” he asks, leaning back against the headboard of his hotel bed.

“Take your clothes off,” Charles says. “And put your laptop somewhere stable so you can lie back on your bed for me.”

Erik fumbles and scrambles to follow Charles’ directions, moving the computer until Charles has the perfect angle, and spreading out across the bed. Propping himself up on an elbow, Erik raises an eyebrow at the screen and asks, “What now?”

Licking his lips again and leaning close to the screen, Charles says, “Just close your eyes and lie back and do what I say. Is that okay?”

“Fuck,” Erik growls, dropping back onto the bed and letting his eyes fall shut. “Of course it’s alright. Just get on with it!”

Charles chuckles, a deep, brief sound that rumbles through Erik skin. “Okay, now start stroking your cock with your right hand. Use the lube if you need to,” he says, and Erik tries to imagine that Charles is just on the other side of the room rather than the other side of the world as he complies. “Slowly,” Charles murmurs, the word almost odd voiced aloud without the aid of Charles’ telepathy.

A moment later, Charles says, “I want you to suck on the fingers of your left hand. Imagine they’re my fingers. Does that feel good?”

Erik nods his head, his whole body alight with pleasure and only a small amount of shame. Charles is whispering quiet praise over the connection, and Erik wishes that he’d thought to connect his wireless headset, so he could feel Charles’ words right against his ears, for his pleasure alone.

“Now,” Charles starts to say, but lets out a yelp instead, and there’s a loud crashing noise that has Erik twisting around so he can kneel at his screen again.

“Charles?” he asks slowly, looking for any sign of Charles in the picture.

“Sorry!” Charles calls, his hand coming into the frame in a wave. “David just thought now was the best time to play!”

Erik sits back on his heels, glaring down at the screen even if Charles can’t see it. “You had him in the room this whole time?” he asks, less shocked than he thinks he should be, but just as annoyed.

Charles’ head pops back into the screen, his hair ruffled but his face flushed with laughter rather than arousal. “He gets so lonely if I kick him out!” he whines. “You should hear him whimper at the door. No one with a heart could keep him out forever!”

Staring down at the screen, his own arousal diminishing fast, Erik grumbles, “I hate dogs.”

-

Erik ignores the email that he finds from Logan in his inbox one morning titled _thought you might like this_ for all of ten minutes. It’s not that he and Logan don’t get along as much as it’s that they enjoy testing how far they can push each other. The results are often loud and angry and sometimes violent. So, the picture could be anything, from Logan stretching out Erik’s favorite winter sweaters to Logan keying Erik’s car. Or it might just be a picture of one of the kids, since Logan is a big softie inside and has somehow discovered that Erik just might be as well.

Instead, Erik finds a picture of Charles sprawled out on their bed, apparently sound asleep. The only thing off about the photo, besides the fact that Logan would have had to have been in their room to take it, is that there’s a giant ball of fur curled up next to Charles, a giant ball of fur that Charles has wrapped his arms around.

For a moment, Erik doesn’t know what to feel. It’s a lovely picture of Charles, and it makes Erik ache to be near him again, ache to have Charles’ arms wrapped around him in the night and to return the hug as well. But also, Charles is apparently replacing him with a dog, which is a little disconcerting. And Charles has let that dog into their bed. Who knows what the dog has done to Erik’s pillow or how he’s made the bed smell.

Pacing across his hotel room, Erik taps out a quick email to Charles. _You let the dog sleep in our bed?!_

To Logan, Erik sends, _I know you took more. Please send._

-

“Does your hotel allow pets?” Charles asks him one night around a mouthful of pasta, eating dinner while Erik prepares for bed.

Erik freezes, pulling his shirt back down an inch to glare at the screen. “You are not bringing the dog,” he bites out.

Charles laughs and sets his plate aside. “Sorry, darling,” he says, leaning his chin on his hand. “You’re just too easy.”

-

Erik doesn’t really enjoy Paris, although the structure of the city is amazing, like most big cities, woven together with metal that settles in over Erik’s sense like a dream. It’s too touristy, though, and too posh besides. On his own, he doesn’t really like to go out much, hasn’t really gone to any of the big tourist attractions besides the Eiffel Tower, where he’d had to stop to send Charles an email he’d rather not remember. But sitting a tiny steel-topped table outside a Parisian coffee shop in early August, his fingers tangled with Charles’ on the tabletop, Erik decides the city isn’t all bad.

Charles’ fingers tighten around his own and Erik turns his gaze back to Charles’ face. “It’s a beautiful city,” Charles says, gaze lost in the sea of people passing by. “I’d forgotten how soothing French is on the mind.” Erik finds French grating, but he doesn’t say anything, too busy trying to swallow down the sense of complete contentment that Charles is sharing with him.

“I don’t know,” Erik says eventually, leaning closer to Charles across the table. “I thought it was pretty boring here until you arrived.”

Charles laughs, but doesn’t turn to Erik as he says, “I’d almost forgotten how bad your pickup lines were.”

“No worse than yours,” Erik grumbles, glancing back out at the crowded street as well.

A short, sharp pang of regret jumps across the contented connection Charles has with him, and Erik frowns. He follows Charles’ gaze out into the street to a couple walking hand in hand with a small dog trailing behind them. Erik frowns.

“You really wish you could’ve brought David, don’t you?” he demands, squaring his shoulders to Charles, who casts him a wary, sidelong glance.

“Well, we have been getting rather close,” Charles says slowly.

Erik rolls his eyes at the obvious taunt. “So, I really am being replaced by a dog?” he asks, and only half of his jealous tone is false.

Charles gives him an unapologetic shrug. “Well, you did give him to me to keep me company while you were away. What did you expect?” he says playfully.

“He wasn’t meant to keep you company—he was an early anniversary present. And I expected that you’d always love your husband the most,” Erik says, taking the last sip of his coffee.

When he looks back at Charles, he finds a sly smile on Charles’ lips. “Why don't you let me take you upstairs and show you just how much I still love you,” Charles murmurs, leaning in over the table.

Erik stands abruptly to wave for their bill.

-

Erik blinks slowly awake in the morning light of his hotel room, turning a slight smile up at Charles, who’s leaning over him, sitting gently on Erik’s thighs.

“Good morning,” Erik says, running a hand through his hair in an effort to wake himself up.

Charles grins down at him and leans over to grab his phone. “Don’t move for a second,” Charles says, biting his lip as he concentrates on steadying the phone’s camera. Erik grabs the phone and tosses it aside as soon as he feels the shutter finish.

“Happy anniversary,” Erik says, leaning up for a kiss.

Charles hums into Erik’s lips, but pulls back too soon, glancing towards his discarded phone. “Happy anniversary,” he says, almost distractedly, and shifts to grab the phone again.

“Putting me as your home screen?” Erik asks, running a hand down his chest to where one of Charles’ knees presses into his sides.

“What?” Charles asks, glancing up only briefly. “No, no. David’s my home screen.”

Erik rolls his eyes and drops his head back down on the bed. “I’m never going to beat that dog, am I?” he asks with a sigh.

Smiling as he thumbs something into his phone, Charles says, “There’s no competition.” Dropping the phone off the bed onto the floor, Charles lowers himself over Erik and places a kiss on his cheek. “I just had to make sure to send myself that picture in case I lose my phone, since I never want to forget any of this.”

“What’d you drop it on the floor for, then?” Erik asks, tipping his head back as Charles drags his fingers through his already tousled hair. “We can document the whole day.”

-

When Erik finally makes it through customs at JFK three weeks later to find Charles waiting for him outside of baggage claim with big welcome home poster obviously designed by the children, Erik thinks his heart might burst from happiness. He drops his bags and folds himself over Charles, taking a moment to absorb all the love that Charles is projecting at him.

_I’m never, ever letting you leave for that long again_ , Charles says silently, pulling Erik in for a kiss.

“Believe me,” Erik whispers against Charles’ lips, “you’ll never be able to make me stay away that long again.”

Charles grins up at him. “Good. Now I just have to figure out how to get you back home and into my bed,” he says.

Erik takes a step back, holding his hands up. “I won’t stop you from doing that,” he says. “I might even help.”

Bending over to grab a few of Erik’s bags and reclaim the children’s poster, Charles says, “I’m glad you’re offering, because I don’t think I could possibly carry all of your stuff. What did you even bring back with you?”

Ignoring the question, Erik chooses instead to follow the flex of Charles’ arms as he lifts a few bags. “You have dog hair all over your back,” Erik mutters, pulling a strand of long, dark fur off the sleeve of his jacket, nose wrinkling with distaste.

“Oh, yes,” Charles says absently, looking around for the exit. “You should probably get used to that.”

-

The kids all greet Erik out on the lawn, all ten of them tackling him to the ground before he even makes it a few steps out of the car; thankfully he’s made it off of the gravel and all the way to the grass. Erik tells himself that he’d fight back if he was less tired, but the sound of Charles’ laughter is soothing and it’s somehow comforting to be covered in the children he hasn’t seen in months.

“Are you French now?” Scott asks, his eyebrows pressed together in worry above his red glasses. “Alex said you’d be French.”

Erik chuckles and ruffles Scott’s hair. “No, I’m the same as always.”

_Dinner’s ready_ , Charles calls to everyone from his place at the patio, where Logan’s manning the grill. Erik has never wanted a hamburger more in his life.

By the time Erik manages to drag himself the the patio, at least one child attached to each leg, Charles is peeking back through the patio door, and Erik knows without having to think too hard, that he’s about to meet David. What he does not expect is for the dog to be as tall as Jean, and probably twice the size of her, fur included.

“What happened to the puppy I got you?” Erik asks, frozen as he stares at the monster licking Charles’ hand.

Jean giggles and lets go of Erik’s leg to run to David’s side. “Would you believe,” Charles says, turning back to give Erik a kiss on the cheek, “that the vet thinks he’s probably going to keep growing for another couple years?”

“I swear I thought it was a dog, not a bear,” Erik says, holding his hand out for the dog to sniff.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Logan grumbles, slamming a plate full of burgers down onto one of the picnic tables.

The dog takes one sniff of Erik’s hand and steps back towards the door. “See?” Charles says, and Erik’s not sure who he’s talking to. “He’s just a big baby. Afraid of strangers.”

Erik shrugs, and reaches over to brush some stray grass out of Jean’s hair, but before his hand quite makes it, David is growling at him, teeth bared. “Charles?” Erik asks cautiously, not moving an inch more.

“A big baby bred as a guard dog,” Logan mutters, placing a hand on David’s back. The dog sits down immediately, tail wagging on the patio floor.

Charles pulls Erik back by the shoulder and says, “Why don’t we just eat over here and leave David with the kids.”

Erik is more than happy to oblige.

-

“Your bear hates me,” Erik says, staring David down over the side of the bed.

“He’s a dog,” Charles calls from the bathroom, “and he’ll get used to you eventually.”

Erik shifts his weight cautiously, stretching his leg out under the sheets. David growls. “I’m not so sure about that,” Erik mutters.

“David, bed,” Charles commands, pointing at the large dog bed that’s come to occupy one corner of their bedroom in Erik’s absence. David goes, tail wagging once more.

Charles smiles at Erik and slides into bed next to him. Rolling onto his side, Charles says, “And now it’s time for your real welcome home present.”

Frowning, Erik sits up, his eyes locked onto the corner. “With the dog in the room?” he asks. Even though he’d like nothing more than to wrap himself around Charles and never let go, there are some things that he’s just not ready for.

“You think it’ll be easier if he’s out of the room?” Charles asks with a resigned sigh.

It’s not. Five minutes of howling, and Erik grudgingly allows Charles to let David back in. “I should’ve just gotten you a bear,” Erik says as Charles slips under the covers again. “At least then we’d all be dead.”

Charles rolls his eyes and pulls the blankets up over their heads. In the dark, it’s not that bad.

-

A week later, the home screen of Charles’ phone is a picture of Erik and David napping on the lawn, David stretched out over Erik, his dark fur taking up most of the frame.


End file.
